Johnson creek just "reformulated" their flavored and I feel like crying

[Mrmanakan]

My lord am I utterly annoyed.

I've been smoking Johnson creek juice since those blu guys changed their flavor and wS glad I found them because Johnson creeks birchwood tobacco was better. I though I would be set and never have to worry or freak out that my flavor that I've been smoking for years would change again. Boy was I wrong.

As far as I can gather ( and honestly I don't know this is just a hunch)
Republic tobacco bought 50% of their company around a year ago. Now a year and some later they're re formulating their flavor. A funny thing on their site which literally makes me laugh is In their FAQ it says "have any of your flavors changed because of republic" & the answer is "absolutely not" well then if that's the case what the heck is up with this reformulation now? I know the laws changing but that's 2 friggin years from now. Why are you alienating your clientele right now? And couldn't they of eased us into this? I honestly feel like they just pulled the same thing blu did a few years ago. Anyways I'm looking for a flavor that is similar to Blu old school classic tobacco or a flavor similar to the old birchwood tobacco. Anyone got any advice? And anyone know wtf is up with this industry alienating its loyal clientele?

 

[endlessendres]

FYI, while regulations go into full affect in 2018, a good amount of rules started on August 8th, 2016. The biggest was that no new product can enter the market. New product includes everything from a new nicotine strength, an ingredient change, a label design change, a bottle change (glass to plastic, even the shape of the bottle), etc. I'd assume one of JC's flavor vendors backed out of the vaping industry (vaping is probably very minimal in the flavor industries revenue and not worth the FDA hassle) and they had to change ingredients. Does it suck, ya. Is JC being shady? Not at all.

 

[Mrmanakan]

I would have to disagree with you.....I would have to say they are being shady for atleast one reason. That reason is that they're still using all the reviews from before the reformulation since these flavors are nothing like or near their predecessors they should at the very least delete the reviews or they should all be given new names. Seriously I ordered one flavor expecting to get the same thing I've gotten for the past few years and take one puff then almost threw up Nasty stuff JC nasty

 

[occamz_razer]

I'm completely annoyed as well. My daily vape was reformulated and tastes simply terrible now, I tried stomaching it, but can't. I logged in here to see if I could find a clone thread and found this one. Their old French Vanilla had tobacco notes in it and it was perfectly balanced, but now it's only vanilla and way too sweet. Can anyone point me in the right direction of a clone recipe? It took me so much time and wasted money to find my daily vape that I'm dreading the search again.

 

[Mrmanakan]

I've done a little research on it supposedly there's a Tennessee cures clone recipe but I'm not sure if it's legit and didn't want to spend the money trying to work it out......I went to a local vape shop and got some that are bareable but not as good.

 

[GGGG]

I'm in the same boat. Years of buying birchwood tobacco and they stop, now wtf???? Anyone want to get together to create a clone?

 

[uab9253]

Yeah, I was just over at their website and it says that they had to reformulate due to one or more of their flavor vendors leave the industry. The reviews on everything over there are pretty much awful. I was a Tennessee Cured guy then a Domestic ADV guy, but I'm going to have to find some new juice. Domestic was great for stealth vaping at work bc no smell really. I use several NicoTicket juices at home and The Virus is my favorite but smells like maple syrup and pancakes and people can usually smell it - although they like the smell. Plus, NicoTicket's prices went up but I guess that is to be expected as Uncle Sam extracts his pound of flesh.

 

[Electro108]

I have the birch wood tobacco and Tennessee cured. I never tried the original versions of these. Birchwood seems like it has a mint gum scent in it. I've been able to tone that out by letting it "air out" in a plastic portion cup for a few days. I keep thinking that something must not be right with these.

 

[mobocracy]

I don't think they've been motivated by deliberate dishonesty, they've been very up front about changes that had to take place to meet FDA regs, and JC has always tried to stay ahead of the regulation curve -- trying to make their product in a way that anticipated regulations.

That being said, I was a huge Vanda fan and the reformulation tastes *nothing* like the old Vanda, to me it has very strong lemon undertones vs. the creamy vanilla it used to be. I got my first bottle of the reformulation after it had been out of stock for some time. I'm hoping there's an aging or curing process they cut short to get product out the door and future releases will get better. But I don't think it will really ever be Vanda again.

IMHO, they should have issued new names and tried something like "If you liked Vanda, you should try X or Y", but I mostly accept that they had to try to sell it under the same name if they thought the reformulation was close vs. dumping established brands for all new products, but they are playing pretty loose with "the reformulation is close".

Ironically, when my supply of Vanda ran out I went to a B&M place and ended up with an Amigo tank and iStick Pico which is amazing and wouldn't work well with 100% VG Vanda anyway. I picked up a 25/75 Vanilla Custard, which while not Vanda, is really, really good. I can't believe how well a subohm tank and high-watt battery vapes, and the subohm atomizer insert seems to last forever. I've only had it for a week, but I find it amazing that so much VG can go through an atomizer and still taste like it did day 1 and produce so much vapor. The woman at the shop said she has them go 60 ml, and I'm starting to believe it.

 

[occamz_razer]

Has anyone had any further luck finding something similar to old Johnson Creek? Here's my progress so far:
Attempting to find an alternative to their original or French Vanilla (that was my daily vape). Have purchased all the current Johnson Creek flavors and attempted to mix them together in various combos, but couldn't get anything that I could stomach. Have tried Vape Dudes, vanilla tobacco and their vanilla cupcake in various pg/vg mixes, but no throat hit, flat flavor and kept making me cough for some reason. I don't sub-ohm vape so I'm using a vivi-nova with ego battery. Tried several DIY mixtures, but after about 15 attempts at vanilla/tobacco combos, gave that up as well. Have also tried all the local brick and mortars, but they simply don't have the quality level that the old Johnson Creek did. Lastly, I've ordered Puffalicious, Apollo, and Vaporworld, also were nowhere close. I've tried finding some alternatives to the old JC spiced apple cider, but again, no dice.

 

[Norajp]

I went through the same thing with JC. Loved their JC original. But the new recipe is so horrible.

I found a company called Black Note. They are actually better than JC. Amazing juice. A little expensive, but worth every penny.

 

[occamz_razer]

Which flavor did you get from Black Note? I've tried forte and I think Legato (maybe Sonata) and while both were good they just seemed light on flavor, kinda like an ultra ultralight. Been thinking of trying to mix in some vanilla something or other for my vanilla kick.

 

[Norajp]

Prelude is the one that I love. To me, it seems the closest to the real deal.

 

[occamz_razer]

Thank you much, I'll try that one next

 

[Androidtech]

For anyone looking for the original Vanda flavor I found that mixing just a small amount of kiln house #22 with the newest Vanda. The new thin Vanda not the milky one that was first put out after reformulation gives me the pretty much the exact same flavor as the original Vanda. I fill up my clearomizer or tank with the new Vanda first and then just leave a little bit of room at the top for Kiln House #22. Probably 5 parts Vanda to 1 part #22. Just enough #22 to knock some of the sweetness out and add a little tobacco flavor. For the last couple of months I have had all three different Vanda flavors the original before reformulation the first reformulation(thick) and the latest Vanda the thin one. So I was able to directly compare my mixture to the original and it tasted just like it to me as long as I mixed it just right. The newest Vanda tasted a little sweeter than the original that is what gave me the idea. Hope this helps !